bi luo chun Green Tea

Bi Luo Chun (or Piluochun) is a green tea, it is a different tea to Gunpowder, for sure. I have seen types that are curled gently rather than compressed into pellets, which is because guess that for quality tea it would be impossible to make pellets using just the bud and first leaf. The quality of Bi Luo Chun (originally grown in Dong Ting, Jiangsu?) is a lot higher than Gunpowder (originally grown in Anhui?) in general.

differences in Chinese teas that to categorise something as part of something else is rather difficult.

I thought that gunpowder only referred to the way the tea is processed? As far as I can tell the bi luo chun and this gunpowder looks the same? Speaking of which, what is Extra Gunpowder and Special Gunpowder and what is it compared to just regular ol' gunpowder? Are either of those the same as Pinhead gunpowder?

-S.

Bi Luo Chun is from JiangSu province. One grade is oblong and snail shape. Gunpowder tea from ZheJiang province is two grades pinhead and pearl. The shinier the leaf the fresher which is a desired characterisic of smaller pinhead while larger pearl is end of season old leaf. The names for Chinese teas comes from the fog of history. You can trace each name to a locale and way of processing.

Jim

S. Chancellor wrote:

The fog of history being particularly amusing for this tea, originally called (something like) 'Dangerous and Killing Tea' before being renamed Biluo Springtime by the visiting emperor.

Actually, the translation should be more like "Startled to Death by the Fragrance" (xia sha ren xiang or 吓煞人香). Because the leaves when heated produced a startling fragrance, the local people gave it this common name. "Xia sha" is sort of a local dialect thing. But when Emporer Kang Xi arrived in the area in 1699, he said, the name of the tea is too unrefined for a tribute tea. So instead he called it "biluochun" 碧螺春，or Green Snail Spring. They call it "green snail spring" because the leaves are kind of rolled in a spiral like a snail's shell.

Yes I remember now, I think Anhui just sprung up into my head for no particular reason, as usual.

Speaking of ZheJiang tea. I seem to have three types of gunpowder tea. Could you maybe explain the difference?

I have from cheapest to most expensive: Special Gunpowder, Extra Gunpowder, and Pinhead Gunpowder. They ranged in price from 4 dollars a pound to 5.50 a pound.

I'm very curious as to what exactly the difference is.

And if you know also, what is the difference between Sencha and Hojicha?

I'm having trouble finding these data.

-S.

I think you're correct about this. The tea from gunpowder is brownish gray, all three types I've bought and tried. This BI Luo Chun. (Which looks mostly like gunpowder to me.) is very tasty in comparison. However it was 15 dollars a pound, on many of the websites I have looked at for it, it is much over 30 dollars a pound. Do you know anywhere that sells the rolled pellets like I have now for a decent price? It seems most online shops are more expensive than the local asian market. =/ (Unfortunately I can't read chinese, so I didn't know I was buying Bi Luo Chun, purely accidental... Maybe that's the best way to try new teas, pick randomly? :)

-S.

Part of the problem with Pilochun is that it is one of the famous teas of China, (like Lung Jing etc.) and thus is in high demand, thus the price gets driven up. There has been some rumor of people passing off a tea that is not pilochun as pilochun at various times, and there was a discussion on here ( I think?) about that a while back. $15 a pound is not expensive, really it's not, not for that tea . Heck, not for any tea... Er...Danny can you comment on grades of Pilochun and their relative prices that one might expect? S., do a search in this group for pilochun (or Bi lo Chun) and see what comes up. It seems there is more discussion of the greens in the spring since that's when they are coming available fresh. When you're unsure about whether you want to spend x amount of money on a tea, try to get a sample first (most tea sites will sell samples) and that will give you a better idea before you buy a lot. But do realize that every new tea you get (and even new batches of a type of tea you've had before) will more than likely be subtly different from each other. Whole leaf tea isn't as standardized in taste as a black blended tea (like Tetley's for instance) and can vary quite a bit. It's a great deal of the lure of tea for me...to try a new type and discover it's taste. Wonderful.

Melinda

Fifteen dollars a pound wasn't really the problem, but that all the Bi Luo Chun (or Pi Lo Chun) I've found from online vendors is around between 30-60 dollars a pound. I'm not sure what the difference is. :) I'm a newb to tea, so I can't really justify the expense for a tea I can't taste the difference of. It seems most online vendors only claim to sell super top grade tea.

Also, I fully agree about the differences in taste in green tea. I think it's quite interesting to try them all. Albeit, I am ending up purchasing more different kinds of tea faster than I can drink them! :)

-S.

A good Biluochun (when you can get it) is truely a remarkable tea. To my eyes it does not look like gunpowder much. Biluochun is not a green tea type, but a particular tea. Gunpowder is a category of tea. Real Biluochun certainly comes from Jiangsu, but there are quite poor "copies" made at least in Taiwan and Yunnan. Once I bought erraneously Taiwanese Biluochun from some Austrian tea vendor and that was less than mediocre if compared the really fantastic genuine Biluochun that I found in one tea shop in St.-Petersburg (this one has nothing to do with Florida!). In better Chinese tea shops they offer often some 2-5 grades of Biluochun depending on season. The best ones are kept safe behind the counter in some kind of refridgerators. The price tag may have 3-4 digits (for one jin... I guess). Last October in Beijing I bought some middle price Biluochun which is fairly good, but the leaves are about 30% larger in size that the more expensive ones. Anyway... real Jiangsu Biluochun is a classic and I recommend to try it.

Precisely.

I completely understand the urge to get more and more, but please understand that green tea decays pretty rapidly, especially once you break the seal on a (hopefully tightly sealed) package. What matters is how much pleasure you expect to get from drinking all the tea you've bought by the time you're done with it; that's the bang you justify the bucks against.

/Lew

Ofcourse! I guess you should buy tea you can understand, this is very wise! If vendors state that you are buying Yunnan or Fuding (area of Fujian) Piluochun 'generic' tea then there aren't really any problems; you know what you are buying. I've seen real Jiangsu Piluochun from Teaspring that is certified Dong Ting (with some sort of QC certificate) and thats $28.70/100g, pricey indeed!

Well I am not sure we can go that far! Have you seen the 'generic' Yunnan loose green teas at Yunnan Sourcing LLC, they have a 'generic' Pilouchun there.

I totally agree with Lew, I once had that attitude to get lots of things and try them, its totally natural (perhaps Western ideology?). Only time can cure...

Sencha is a good Japanese green tea, higher in quality than Bancha (an everyday-drinking green tea in Japan).

Houjicha is Bancha that's been pan-roasted (wok-roasted?) to a brown color. I find it has an almost Oolong-like flavor -- I like it.

And you didn't ask, but Kukicha is mostly twigs and stems from the tea plant. Haven't tried it yet, me. And Genmaicha is Bancha with toasted rice in it.

stePH np: King Crimson, "The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum"

I can't endorse that "mostly". You can buy kukicha that's mostly leaf, and the leaf can come from vintages as lofty as sencha, or even, some vendors say, gyokuro.

/Lew

I stand corrected. So what exactly constitutes "kukicha" then? Because even the sencha I get has a few stems and twigs in it.

stePH np: King Crimson, "Improv: El Groovistico SS Blastico"

I was just browsing and I stumbled upon

Looks intersting? Yunnan Simao Biluochun ($8.20(tea)+$14.20(post)/lb) and the Yunnan Xishuangbannan Biluochun ($0.01(tea)+$14.99(post)/lb) which comes close to your $15/lb price search. I haven't bought from this seller so I don't know, the shipping/tea costs do seem a little weird, especially the $0.01, but the tea looks good...

-- VL

The second stuff looks like what i bought except that the leaves are lighter in color. It's half the price. I may buy from them once I drink up this stuff :)

Thanks a lot!

-S.

But none of those look anything like Biluochun. So why would you buy from them?